Well acctually it's the kiss X5 but I'm sure most of you know the difference or the fact there barly is one.

I bought it from digitalrev.com I have a confession to make, I did not use the afilliate link, partyly because I didnt know digital rev had become an afilliate supplier since I last were on these forums and I just forgot.

I got a good deal with the camera and kit lens costing £459 and it arrived almost exactly 2 days and 12 hour from the time I ordered it.

I aim to get a 50mm 1.8 unless anyone were to recommend otherwise because the kit lens is too dark.

I can finally pretend to be a professional photographer like the rest of you ;P

Optically these two lenses are very similar. Wide open up until about f2.8 the 1.4 gets the edge. After that the 1.8 probably has the edge. Although you don't really buy a fast prime unless you want to use fast apertures so the 1.4 is probably regarded as slightly better. The bokeh on the 1.4 is also nicer thanks to the 8 aperture blades as apposed to the 5 on the 1.8. Overall they are both very good lenses but if you can afford the 1.4 and like the benefits of it by all means go for it If you want to use it as more of an everyday lens and don't mind putting up with the bad build quality and slower focusing then the 1.8 will give you very slightly better images.

I work in IT so I'm in the process of gaining qualifications although I'm hoping to move into a fulltime position in the next couple of months then I should be able to get some decent kit.

in the mean time I'll just practice and be in general very happy with my new camera just glad to be a few steps up from point & shoots and mobile phone cameras, at least I can focus the camera on my self to take self portraits now my samsung phone is useless for this albeit a good phone though.

I just read a test of both lenses and it looks like the 1.4 version is sharper in the center but the 1.8 is sharper in the corners. At F4 they are very similar. But in the end it's not an extreme difference. If you stop the 1.8 lens down (F4) the "bokeh balls" are no balls but pentagons. But the sharpness itself if great. The build quality of the 1.4 version is noticably better but not exactly great either. And the 1.4 has a micro USM instead of a ring USM, which means that it is nearly noiseless (much less noise than the 1.8 with its micro motor produces) but not much faster than the 1.8 version. A ring USM would be better.

Short: Yeah, if I had to choose I'd take the 50mm 1.4 but as I have to pay (and I'm not rich) I went for the 1.8 version. I'd rather update to a 85mm 1.8 instead of a 50mm 1.4.